National Alliance of Taiwan Women's Associations

The National Alliance of Taiwan Women’s Associations (NATWA) (Chinese: 臺灣婦女團體全國聯合會) is the only umbrella group for organizations promoting women’s interests across the island of Taiwan. The Alliance is both a Non-governmental organization and a Non-profit organization. Founded in 2001, the alliance consists of 67 member groups. The alliance was created to more efficiently coordinate the distribution of resources among different organizations operating under different circumstances. It regularly publishes educational material, holds conferences and workshops, and participates in movements that advance the rights and interests of Taiwan’s women.

The goals of NATWA are manifold and include the following:
1. Promoting awareness of women’s rights issues in Taiwan
2. Publicizing the content of UN treaties that specifically address women’s issues
3. Decreasing the disparities between women in rural and urban areas
4. Collaborating with other women’s organizations to promote women’s interests
5. Monitoring government policy related to women’s issues

In 2002, NATWA, along with representatives from other women’s groups, began lobbying legislators in both the Kuomintang and Democratic Progressive Party to set up an independent gender agency in the central government. They held a series of panel discussions and public hearings, eventually convincing the executive branch to include a special gender agency under the Organizational Reform Plan in 2005. Currently, the plan is still pending approval by the Legislative Yuan.

Since 2002, the Ministry of the Interior has invited NATWA to represent women’s NGOs in collaborating with other NGOs to evaluate local governments’ executions of the Women’s Welfare Policy and Budget. Representatives work with the Ministry of the Interior, touring the island every July to make inspections. They not only supervise policy execution, but also provide advice to local and central governments alike.

NATWA works with 10 other women’s groups to form an alliance, the Women on Women's Budget Alliance, which supervises the central government’s inclusion of gender mainstreaming in the annual budget on women’s affairs.

The Commission of Women’s Rights Promotion and Development (WRPD) heeded the Alliance’s advice and included the Alliance in its 2003 annual plan. Ever since, every February, each department of the central government has had to submit a report on how their budget meets the needs of women to WRPD for commissioners and women’s NGOs to evaluate.

...
Wikipedia